Get up and run!

 

"FOR THOUGH A RIGHTEOUS MAN FALLS...HE RISES AGAIN." PROVERBS 24:16 NIV
 
Carole Mayhall writes: "The other night Jack and I watched a television drama called 'See How She Runs.' In it a 40-year-old, divorced schoolteacher decided to become a jogger and eventually entered the 26-mile Boston Marathon. It's a grueling test of heart, mind and body. To finish the race became her goal, and in spite of being jeered at and assaulted she didn't lose sight of it. When the day of the race came she faced her ultimate test. As she ran, huge blisters developed on her feet. She was hit and injured by a bicycle. Several miles short of the finish line found her utterly exhausted, yet she kept going. Then within a few hundred yards of her goal, late at night when most other runners had finished or dropped out, she fell and lay flat on her face too tired to get up. But her friends put a crude tape across the finish line and began to cheer her on. She lifted her head, saw the tape and realized her goal was within sight. With supreme effort she got back up, and with a burst of energy dredged up from deep within her, ran the last few yards."

Victory belongs to those who keep looking at the goal, not the going; not the process, but the prize; not the trial, but the treasure that's promised to those who persevere. A twofold theme of Christianity is, rising again and running the race. But you can't win if you don't run and risk falling. And no matter what caused you to fall, the word for you today is, "Take God's hand, get up, and run!"